


[Eng] More than Heaven

by Farea_Fire



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angel Wings, Angels, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Death, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Heaven, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Repressed Memories, Sad with a Happy Ending, True Love, True Love's Kiss, True Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 20:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farea_Fire/pseuds/Farea_Fire
Summary: [Keith✗Lance] [ModernAU]Thay say that love is the most powerful and overwhelming feeling that can be felt. And yet, as with all things, it has a limit. "Till death do us apart", the vows recite.But then, whoever said that death really has this power?





	[Eng] More than Heaven

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Italiano available: [[Ita] More Than Heaven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190053) by [Farea_Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farea_Fire/pseuds/Farea_Fire)
  * A translation of [[Ita] More Than Heaven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190053) by [Farea_Fire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farea_Fire/pseuds/Farea_Fire). 



> Hello everyone~  
> Even if this story is written in English, I'm Italian so there might be some typos or grammatical mistakes. I tried my best, but I'm still learning. If you notice something wrong, please feel free to notify me. Thank you for your time. I hope you enjoy the story! ♡

 

 

The front door of the building slammed violently, when a small group of people ran through it at full speed. Some were screaming, trying to look over their shoulders. A boy was crying, asking loudly who had the idea of going to that place abandoned by God.  
The doors of the car parked in the courtyard opened and closed roughly and the vehicle darted out of the driveway, hurling pieces of stones and gravel everywhere.  
The blackened wooden door remained ajar and slammed slightly, moved by the wind, a couple of times before with a sigh, a pale hand finally closed it.  
   
«You just couldn’t hold yourself back, isn’t it?»  
   
«He had the courage to make a lewd appreciation about _her_!»  
   
«And does this seem like enough motivation to get his pants down in front of everyone?»  
   
«It was an insult to Shakira!»  
   
«It was a poster!»  
   
«It makes no difference! It's the thought that counts!»  
   
The young man next to the door sighed, covering his face with his hand. For his interlocutor, that was the signal that the discussion had just ended and that, once again, he had won. After all, he had the last word, right?  
   
«You weren’t so sadistic when you were alive.»  
   
«Wrong! I was, but I didn’t have the powers I have now.»  
   
Keith sighed again and looking up, he tried to meet his friend’s eyes, which were almost white, so that he could read his disappointment directly from his gaze. Lance, sitting cross-legged, smiled at him, hanging upside down in the middle of the room. Floating was one of the best things about being ghosts. This and the fact that you no longer need to use stairs to get from place to place. Going through the floor was more than enough.  After a few seconds of intense non-verbal communication, the upside-down ghost stretched out a hand. Taking a light blow with his feet, Keith broke off the floor and floated until he tightened it.  
   
«This was the second group of ghost hunters this week. That documentary about the paranormal they shot on us last month must have aired!»  
   
«It’s your fault if this building is known as one of the most hounted house of the State!»  
   
«I would sai it’s something to be proud of.»  
   
«It really isn’t!»  
   
Bickering, they went up to the ceiling, crossing it. One floor after another, they arrived at the third and entered one of the apartments. The front door had been closed -blocked- for many years, but neither of them cared about it. They wouldn't had use it anyway.  
   
«I’m exhausted!»  
   
Keith watched the other ghost-boy lazily fall on one side of the bed, rolling on his side. Keith sat in the space left free, cross-legged and resting his back on the headboard.  
   
«You're the only ghost on the face of the earth that can sleep» he teased him.  
   
«Oh, do you know many others to compare me with?» the other reply, receiving only a groan as answer.  
   
A heavy veil of quiet fell into the room.  
For them it wasn’t a day like any other and the short interruption of the hunters had served to distract them for only a couple of hours.  
Silently, as Lance plunged into this dreamlike trance, Keith took the book he had previously left on the bedside table and opened it. Death left a lot of free time and in the last seven years Keith had read almost all the books he had found on the first three floors of the building.  
Some of the pages were too damaged, blackened or completely destroyed, so he had tried to use his imagination to fill in the holes in the plot. It had turned out to be a pleasant pastime.  
He had just finished the chapter when, timely as a clock, they arrived.  
Slowly he closed the book, frowning. Lance, lying next to him, didn’t move an inch, continuing to snore softly -admitted that he could consider snoring the sound emitted by those who cannot breathe during sleep-.  
Taking care not to wake him, he took away the hand he was stroking his hair with, helping his sleep.  
   
A bright white light appeared right in the center of the room. Keith brought a hand to his face to protect his eyes and shielded Lance's with the other. The light dimmed as its shape became more defined and humanoid, until it revealed a beautiful angel. Their hair was long and snow-white, eyes the same color as the skies in spring, skin dark as blessed by the sun, smile sweet like honey. The angel moved their wings, folding them behind their shoulders and crossed their hands in front of the body, softly covered in a blue dress.  
When they spoke, their voice was like a song.  
   
«Keith» they said, then held out a hand to him. «I'm here to take you to heaven.»  
   
The boy slowly slid off the bed and walked up to stop right in front of the angel. His feet couldn’t touch the ground, so they were not real steps that he did, but the habit is hard to die, even when the body has already done it.  
   
«Thank you, but I won’t come.»  
   
The angel's forehead wrinkled and the hand was retracted. Their wings moved, showing the discomfort that that celestial creature felt for the refusal just received.  
   
«Are you sure of your decision?»  
   
«I am sure today as I was last year and as I will be next. And all the years that will follow.»  
   
«You cannot stay here forever» the angel tried to convince him, but the ghost-boy folded his arms over his chest and looked down.  
   
«I will stay as long as necessary. I made my decision, you can go back every damn year from here to eternity. It will not change.»  
   
The angel nodded.  
   
«I'll be back next year» they promised.  
   
Their wings spread out, starting to glow with the light that slowly enveloped the body. They disappeared, silent as they had arrived.  
Keith sighed and turned to the bed. Lance was still there, in the same position in which he had left him.  
He reached him, lying behind him and after making sure he was actually sleeping, he put an arm on his side and buried his face in his hair.  
They were white now and had no scent, but Keith still had the memory of the perfume that the body had when blood flowed in the veins, the heart beated, the skin was warm.  
Heat was one of the things that he most regretted about his condition.  
The other was not being able to look at Lance in the eyes and see the ocean. Those blue irises had faded, become transparent as well as everything in his spiritual form.  
Yet, despite all these changes, nothing had changed in Keith's eyes.  
He put a hand on his back, fingers touched the bare skin visible through the gashes in the fabric.  
   
«I won’t leave you» he whispered, gently rubbing his nose between those white locks.« I'll never do it…»  
   
 

*** * * * ***

   
«I don’t know, it seems a little expensive…»  
   
«But it will be worth it! We could rent it and charge it by the hour. Think how much we would earn if only we can convince the guys on the second floor, those that make a party literally every week!»  
   
«I still think that a karaoke machine is not a good investment for us, now…»  
   
Lance rolled his eyes, then aimed the wooden spoon, he was using to cook, against him.  
   
«Well, then I'll ask someone else, but when I’ll become rich, don’t come to me to complain! Too bad, we would have been a good team.»  
   
Keith, sitting at the kitchen table, closed the brochure that had caused the discussion and hid a smile behind his hand.  They both knew that Lance would never buy that thing without him, that they would talk about it for a few days and eventually become proud owners of a karaoke machine. He just didn’t want Lance to think he would always win over him.  
He watched him cook for a few seconds, then a noise caught his attention. A roar, weak, far away.  
   
«What was that?» he asked, getting up from the chair.  
   
There was another one, right after. Closer, this time.  
Lance, standing in front of the stove on, turned to him.  
   
«Wha-»  
   
Hell came down on them.  
Keith saw in slow motion the flame rise under the pot and explode violently, destroying the kitchen. He felt his body being thrown backward, his head hitting the broken and upturned table on the floor. His eyes closed.  
Dark.  
   
When he recovered, there was only fire around him. His vision was blurred, his lungs burning as if they had not breathed smoke, but flames as well.  
His first thought was that he had not heard Lance scream.  
   
«Lance!»  
   
Coughing, he forced his body to move and crawled on the floor. Portions of the wall and ceiling had collapsed, reducing the room to a pile of debris and floating dust, making the air even more unbreathable than the smoke was already doing.  
The front door had been blocked by a burning beam, collapsed sideways. The lack of a way out would have to worry him, but at that moment there was enough room in his mind for only one thought.  
A name.  
A face.  
   
«Lance!» he screamed again.  
   
A chough came out, his voice thick with smoke.  
The latin boy was lying on the ground, a few meters away from the stove now reduced to a pyre of metal.  
The torn gas pipes fueled the merciless fire. Keith crawled up to reach the boy, taking him in his arms. He called him over and over again, but those gates, guardians of the ocean pools they guarded, remained closed. The ceiling above them crunched menacingly.  
They had to leave from there. Without ceasing to call him, beg him, Keith forced his knees and stood up, dragging Lance's body with him.  
   
«Lance! Please, Lance, wake up. I cannot… I… I need you…!»  
   
He struggled through the apartment, reaching his room, the nearest one, the only one closed.  
He crossed the threshold and bolted the door, leaning on it with his back. The air was hot. The apartments above and below must have been devoured by fire. Clothes and hair had stuck to his body, covered in sweat and dust and scratches.  
No response from Lance yet.  
The knees gave way, causing both boys to collapse on the ground. Crawling, he walked away from the door and laid Lance down on the carpet next to the bed.  
The fire hadn’t reached his room yet, but the smoke… It was everywhere.  
The ceiling was obscured by dark black clouds,  which oppressed their every breath.  With difficulty he managed to push a blanket in front of the crack at the base of the door, hoping that the smoke would be slowed down.  
He came back to Lance, studying him. His clothes were burned, his neck stained with blood dripping from the back of his head. Keith rolled up a shirt and pushed it against the wound.  
   
«Everything’s alright» he said, ignoring the way his hands were shaking and his vision fogged. Lance needed him. «I have you.  I'm here, it will be fine. The rescues are coming. You heard me? Lance? Open your eyes…»  
   
The forces abandoned him. Without air that he could breathe, he felt suffocated and his body had stopped responding to commands.  
_Get up, open the window, come on, get up_ , he repeated to himself.  
_Impossible_ , he answered.  
Coughing, he curled up beside the silent body. He held him in his arms, finally leaving the tears that stung his eyes free to slide down his cheeks, tracing furrows in the dirt that stained the skin.  
   
«Lance…»  
   
_Are you already gone?_  
   
 

*** * * * ***

   
Keith was reading his book aloud.  
   
It had been a long time since the last visit of the ghost hunters, the only real source of distraction for them , and that was the only thing the raven could think of, to keep Lance from spending the whole day in that strange state of coma in which he tended to lock himself up.  
Keeping track of the days became more difficult ad time went by and could barely tell which season it was, peering out the window. Hours, days, weeks followed one another the same as before, dragging them into an infinite loop in which they ended up getting lost.  
He had managed to persuade Lance to stop floating in the air and sit next to him.  
If he had had a working heart, it would have thrown into his throat at the moment Lance had placed his cheek on his shoulder, as he leaned over to peer at the words from the pages.  
Listening to the story, Lance took Keith's hand between his own and turned it, exposing the palm. The lines drawn on the skin were barely visible now that everything about him had become so bright and transparent. He tried to trace the path with his fingertips: the lines of life, fortune, love.  
He smiled as Keith's voice trembled slightly. The caresses of any kind were the greatest weakness of that boy, so cold apparently as sweet with those who took the time necessary to know him.  
Lance had had a life, to do it and now even death.  
He had discovered over time all his points that if touched even by the lightest of caresses, brought Keith to purr like a cat: the wrist, the throat, a small area behind the ear, the long black hair that covered the neck .  
In life, he had loved to let those dark locks slip between his fingers. Now, the perception that he had doing the same movement was completely different.  A half-lived feeling, a lack.  
God, he missed it _so much_ …  
   
The noise of the wheels of a car on the creaking gravel distracted him from that nostalgic flow of thoughts. Keith fell silent and they both turned to the broken glass window, from which loud and clear came the sounds of car doors that were being opened and voices.  
   
«Miracle!» Lance exclaimed, leaping from the bed to rush to peek outside. «Finally something to do!»  
   
«We were already doing something…» Keith pretended to be offended, closing the book with a dry gesture.  
   
«Something that involves some action, Keith» Lance replied, mimicking his tone. «I have a couple of ideas that I couldn’t wait to test…» then with a threatening smirk on his face, he disappeared through the floor.  
   
The ghost boy who remained on the bed sighed, running fingers over his eyes. He knew that Lance would never hurt their visitors, and yet he couldn’t help feeling at least a little grateful to be a ghost and not one of the poor guys who would soon end up in the sights of his bored friend.  
He listened to the front door opening with the familiar sharp creak and let himself fall backwards, lying on the mattress. One hand touched the other, following the traces of the caresses that only a few minutes before he had received from the only fingers that, both in life and in death, had been able to give him goosebumps, shivers all over his body, heartbeat.  
Being destined to spend eternity with the person you've always been in love with seems like a dream… But what if the love of your life doesn’t even remember it?  
Something fell downstairs, causing a violent noise. _What the hell is he doing?, h_ e found himself wondering, while the sound of screams spread through the air.  
Keith suddenly sat up, listening more carefully. If he had had blood in his body, he would have turned pale.  
He jumped out of bed, rushing straight across the floor and down to the entry hall, just as the whole building began to shake.  
Because the screams he was hearing weren’t just those of unknown hunters.  
Among those screams, Keith also recognized Lance’s.  
 

**~ ~ ~  
** 

«What can I start with? Well, it depends on whether they have a microphone or ... Maybe I could brush their hair or tap on their shoulders and watch them accuse each other? Or I could raise the braids of one of them! Oh, please, let at least one have braids!»  
   
Though aware that visitors couldn’t see him, Lance flattened himself against a wall, listening to them talking to determine how close they were and their approximate position. He was dead, yes, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t have a little fun. All the spy movies he'd seen in life had to be useful for something.  
   
« _Dìos_ , look at what state the building's in!» was saying the voice of a girl, barely audible.  
[God]  
   
«The fire started in the basement and spread along the gas pipes. That's why every single floor caught fire» a boy answered.  
   
«It surprises me that it's still standing.»  
   
«Didn’t you see the two thousand warning signs out here? Seriously, Nad… That doesn’t sound like a great idea to me.»  
   
«I told you I would come alone, Sylvio. You wanted to follow me, so stop whining now.»  
   
Behind the corner where he was hidden, Lance's motionless heart seemed to suddenly become very small. The ghost boy tried to remain calm, taking a few long breaths that didn’t even bring a breath of air to his inconsistent lungs.  
It was insane the fact that, although he no longer had a real body, his perceptions continued to remain the same. Lance then found himself having to deal with his mouth, suddenly dry and an impossible tachycardia, while his mind recorded the voices of visitors and their words, recognizing them as familiar.  
   
«Have it really been ten years?» he listened to the girl.  
   
He refused to associate a face to her voice, which seemed to be so sad…  
   
«Yes… Exactly today, ten years ago… One of the worst days of my life.»  
   
«I had never lost someone and I certainly did not believe that _he_ would have been the first mourning in my life…»  
   
The voices moved through the entrance hall, while they peered through the ground floor doors, looking for not even them know what.  
Arrived at the stairs, they were forced to stop. A huge part of the steps had vanished, devoured by the fire and prevented them from reaching the upper floors.  
   
«Oh right» the boy murmured, touching the delicate handrail with his hand. «The firemen had carried out all the rescue operations going through the windows, didn’t they? This must be the reason.»  
   
«The stairs were already destroyed… Oh, Gods… All those poor people… And _him_ …»  the girl's voice broke.  
   
Still petrified in his hiding place, Lance understood from the sounds he heard the other boy must have embraced her. Her sobs now came muffled.  
   
«Nadia… Maybe we should go-»  
   
«No! No, now I calm down… I’ve always wanted to come here. I hated dad when he prohibited us to get close to this place… It was like…if he had forbidden me to say goodbye to him.»  
   
_No…_  
   
A long pause of silence followed those words, then the boy, Sylvio, cleared his throat.  
   
«Do you really believe it? To all those ghost stories that are circulating about this place… Do you think they have anything to do with him?»  
   
«I don’t know, but… If there was even a small chance that he's still here, wouldn’t you want to catch it? Wouldn’t you like to say goodbye?»  
   
_No._  
   
«I… Yes, I suppose so.»  
   
«We should try, then.»  
   
_No. No._  
   
«I don’t know if you can hear us…»  
   
_Shut up._  
   
«…we came here for you, to feel you closer…»  
   
_I do not want to listen to you._  
Furious, Lance turned the corner and found himself for the first time, face to face with the two intruders. Next to each other, tanned skin and bright blue eyes, they were holding hands and talked, looking into the vague direction of the ceiling.  
   
«…to tell you how much we miss you…»  
   
_You are not them! You cannot be-_  
   
«…and we hope that wherever you are, you’re happy now, Uncle Lance.»  
   
«NO!»  
   
The ghost boy fell to his knees, bringing hands to cover his ears. He shook his head as the thoughts took their voices.  
   
«No, no, no!»  
   
A burned beam, until now leaning against the wall, suddenly fell to the ground causing a loud noise, almost a blast. Nadia screamed and so did Sylvio, who almost backed down against the blackened wall.  
   
«What was that?!» he asked, looking around in terror.  
   
The girl was watching where small clouds of dust and soot rose, where the beam had fallen, moving the air and the debris.  
   
«…You believe that-»  
   
«You are not them! My nephews are children, you're just liars!»  
   
«Uncle Lance ?! Is it you? Are you here?»  
   
«Get out of my house!»  
   
The whole building suddenly began to tremble. The dust fell from the cracks in the walls and ceiling, the floor creaked and the chandelier suspended in the center of the atrium, black by the fire that had devoured its decorations, but not the structure, rocked slightly back and forth.  
   
«¿Qué está pasando?»  
[What is happening?]  
   
«Lance!»  
   
A new voice joined the chorus. However, Lance didn’t look up to see Keith come down from above, pointing straight at him.  
A single glance was enough for the newly arrived ghost boy to recognize the two grown-up faces of Lance's nephews in the two visitors.  
They were about ten years old, the last time he saw them. They had grown up, yet they hadn’t changed at all.  
The typical features of the McClain family were vivid and evident on their faces, making it impossible to confuse them with anyone else.  
The reason for Lance's violent reaction was suddenly clear.  
He wrapped his arms around him the moment he reached him. Lance didn’t seem to notice him, as he continued to hold his ears in his hands, shaking his head and screaming. At each shout, the house shook a little more.  
The chandelier above them swayed with a little more force.  
   
«Lance! Lance you have to stop doing that! Stop now!»  
   
«They have to go, go away! Out! Out!»  
   
«Sylvio, Nadia! Get out!» Keith shouted, clutching Lance to his chest, in a desperate, futile, attempt to help him calm down.  
   
The two human couldn’t hear their voices, not that way, not without a tape recorder or one of the strange devices that the hunters usually carried with them during their hunting parties. Yet Keith tried it anyway.  
Because the ceiling around that shabby chandelier had begun to creak. Because despite the hatred that came from his screams, Keith knew that if they got hurt, Lance could had never forgive himself.  
   
«Please Nadia! Let’s go!»  
   
«What if it really is him?! If it is Uncle Lance, we-»  
   
«It’s too dangerous!»  
   
_Listen to you brother, damn it!_  
   
Keith turned away from them for a moment.  
   
«Lance, look at me!»  
   
His hands moved from his shoulders to Lance's face. When their foreheads touched, those eyes that now from the sea kept only the color of the foam of the waves, opened wide.  
   
«Look at me, listen to me! And stop!»  
   
A second. Maybe a minute.  
An eternity.  
Then the building stopped shaking.  
   
«Kei-» he whispered, before a noise, a sinister crackle of broken wood, brought his eyes to look at the ceiling behind the raven ghost.  
   
Keith followed his gaze in time to see the huge chandelier once suspended, break away and begin to fall in the direction of the two young McClain.  
   
«No!» the ghost boys shouted in unison.  
   
Together, they both stretched a hand in the direction of the young humans, who felt themselvs being lifted from the floor a few centimeters and threwed backwards, amid the dust and the rubble. Far from the point where, not a second later, the huge chandelier crashed with a crash that shook the few windows remained intact.  
Keith looked at his hand as if it were the first time he saw it. Never, in the last ten years, had he been able to manifest such power. Lance collapsed against his chest as his hand fell back to the floor.  
   
With his once violet eyes, he watched the two trembling humans stand up, exchanging a few words in Spanish that he couldn’t understand, while they were already running towards the front door.  
   
«He saved us!» he thought he heard the girl say, while they were jumping out of the building and into the car.  
   
The engine was turned on.  
The gravel crushed by the wheels that were moving away.  
Keith relaxed his body and put his fingers into the white hair of Lance who, clinging to him, was sobbing without tears.  
   
 

*** * * * ***

   
When he recovered, he was already dead.  
He watched for several minutes people in uniform who were moving around the room cautiously. They didn’t speak, maintaining a respectful silence in honor perhaps of the two bodies covered with sheets that were being moved on as many stretchers.  
   
«There’s nothing to do. The entrance is blocked and the floor too rickety. Let's take them out through the window.»  
   
«Did you see the kitchen? The explosion of that stove must have been crazy!»  
   
«Hey, bring a little respect, you idiot! A boy died, for that explosion!»  
   
«Istant death, right? Fast.»  
   
_A good death_ , he found himself thinking.  He had always thought that a quick death would be the best of options and obviously, someone had had that "luck". Who knows who?  
Perhaps one of the two bodies lying on the floor?  
Who were they?  
And now that he thought about it, _who was he_?  
From his point of view, his person, his whole essence could be considered reduced to a pair of floating eyes, spying unseen the actions of those below him, but he could have sworn it was not always like that. He had a body once. A face, a name, a story. Anyway, at that moment it was impossible for him to bring the details to mind.  
   
«Leave their belogings, staying is too dangerous. Let the victims go down carefully from the window and moved to the next floor.»  
   
Four men in uniform grabbed the ends of the stretchers and lifted them.  
He watched them approach the window. What would he do when they left? When had he remained alone?  
A light illuminated the wall from behind him, sudden and dazzling. None of the men present reacted to the unexpected appearance, almost as if… they couldn’t see it.  
He turned around.  
A candid white light appeared right in the center of the room.  
Instinctively he lifted a hand, covering his eyes to protect them, but immediately opened them wide, surprised. A hand! He had a hand!  
Looking down, he saw a whole body appear slowly, as if it had been covered in magic ink and that light, so intense and warm, had the power to make it appear.  
As soon as all of him became visible, the glow began to diminish. A staircase that seemed to be made of whipped cream stretched out in front of him and a figure began to descend the steps, stopping exactly halfway between the blackened floor and the light, impossible to look directly.  
   
«Keith» they said and he suddenly remembered. Yes, Keith. That was his name.  
   
«Who are you?»  
   
«My name cannot be pronounced in your language» they answered quietly, their voice so sweet that it sounded like a song.  
   
«What do you want, then?»  
   
«I'm here to show you the way to heaven.»  
   
«Wait, what ?! Heaven?!»  
   
With one hand, the angel pointed to the first steps of the staircase. «Your mind is in a storm, your memories confused, but I give you my word that you will remember everything, if you come to me.»  
   
_Anything would be better than this_ , the boy thought. He needed answers. So he began to climb the stairs. With every step he earned, it was as if a piece of puzzle in his mind went right. First came the most remote memories, like his childhood. Then school, university, work.  
He reached the angel halfway up the steps and the faces of the people he had around him went slowly into focus. Mother, father, brother, his friends, his boyfriend.  
   
«What happened?» he asked.  
   
«Take my hand.»  
   
Unsure, Keith leaned the palm of his pale hand over the dark-skinned angel.  
Like a wave, violent and icy, the memories of those who had been his last minutes in life invested him, backwards starting from the moment of his death. The last burning breath. The infernal heat that surrounded him. The splinters and cuts on every inch of bare skin. The motionless body from which he had begged for an answer. The blood on the face of-  
   
«Lance! Oh my- Lance was with me! It was him, right? Those were us?!» he shouted, turning to the window from which the rescuers had already left, leaving him alone while he was distracted. «Those were us, we are dead. Lance… They were talking about him… He was already… He was…»  
   
His voice broke. He wanted to cry, but he realized he couldn’t do it. His "body" no longer acted as such. The angel tightened his grip on his hand, calling his attention, but Keith withdrew his own.  
   
«Did you talk to him too?» he asked. «Did you talk to Lance?»  
   
«I did» the angel answered. A shadow of sadness appeared on their face.  
   
«Where is he?» his hands closed in fists and he backed away, taking a step back on the soft ladder. «Where is Lance, have you already taken him to heaven? And don’t you dare tell me it's confidential, professional secrecy or whatever, because he's my boyfriend so I have every right to-»  
   
«Lance McClain is not in heaven» the angel said and at those words Keith felt his soul freeze.  
   
«What does it mean that he is not in heaven ?! You mean that… that…»  
   
«The idea that has crossed your thoughts right now is incorrect. His soul is not in hell.»  
   
«I asked you to tell me where he is, not where he is not. Please.»  
   
The angel spread his wings. The brightness of those snow-white feathers lit up the room with a new light and Keith was able to see him. Just as it had happened to his own, his body had also lost all colors. His hair was white, his skin pale gray. He could see through his figure curled up on the floor, his arms wrapped around his legs, his forehead pressed to his knees. He was crying, shaking, and for Keith was like receiving a stab straight to the heart.  
   
He moved to reach him, but the angel held out an arm, stopping him.  
   
«Wait.»  
   
«What?»  
   
«My duty is to lead you to heaven.»  
   
«And Lance?»  
   
The angel sighed.  
   
«The same offer was also addressed to the soul of Lance McClain, but as soon as he began to climb the ladder, he had been overwhelmed by memories and refused to continue. Some souls» they explained «develop ties more intense than others with earthly life. It was an unacceptable thought for him to leave his family and friends whose memory he had recovered.»  
   
«So you’ll leave him here?!»  
   
«I cannot impose entry into heaven to those who do not wish to cross the gates. His stay on Earth will continue until he is ready to- »  
   
«So» Keith interrupted the angel «if I now come down the ladder and stay on earth, then will I still be able to reach paradise some day?»  
   
«Your soul is ready. Every year on the day of your death, the gates will open for you.»  
   
«Perfect.»  
   
Keith turned his back on the angel and began to go down the steps, hands in his pockets.  
   
«Are you going to stay on earth?»  
   
«I'm going to stay with Lance. I know him, if he stays alone now… He will lose himself forever…»  
   
«Are you sure of your choice? It is difficult for a spirit to spend a year on earth, it is not a place for pure souls, but a limbo reserved for uncertain and penitent.»  
   
«Yes, I'm sure.»  
   
«Why?»  
   
Keith stopped on the last step and looked away for the first time from Lance, to look at the angel. The celestial creature couldn’t hide their surprise when they saw a smile on the ghost boy's face.  
   
«Because when I say the word “heaven”, I think about him.»  
   
«As you wish.»  
   
«See you next year, then.»  
   
As soon as Keith had set foot on the blackened floor of his old bedroom, the stairway disappeared and the light with it. Keith felt his body change slightly, becoming light and inconsistent. He could see through his own hands, now and it was strange to have the instinct to breathe, but at the same time didn’t need to.  
He took his hands out of his pockets and moved closer to the corner where Lance was curled up, shivering. He hoped, prayed, that he could at least touch him when he reached for his shoulder.  
It worked.  
Relief.  
White eyes as if they were blinds rose up, finding his. Before he could open his mouth, Lance raised an arm and hit his hand hard.  
   
«I told you I will not come, so le-»  
   
«Lance! No, I'm not the angel! It's me!»  
   
«Keith?» the boy asked, calming himself to the sound of that voice.  
   
«Yup. Yes, it's me, bab-»  
   
«What are you doing here? How can you see me, are you like…a kind of medium?!»  
   
«What?!» Keith frowned. «No, Lance… I'm dead too. I died with you...»  
   
«You are dead?! When, how ?!»  
   
«Don’t you remember?»  
   
Lance seemed annoyed by his insistence and folded his arms across his chest.  
   
«Of course not. Do you think I'd waste time asking you, if not? _Dìos_ , don’t tell me that after life, now I'll have to have you around even in death, Kogane.»  
   
Those words made a bell rings in the ghost boy's mind. This wasn’t his Lance.  
This was the Lance he had met for the first time several years before. The one who hated him, the one that turned everything into a competition between them. The one that had taken two years before finding the courage, while they were both drunk, to kiss him and ask him out and then had apologized because, now that he thought about it, perhaps he should have reversed the order of the two things.  
   
Lance hadn’t climb up the stair.  
He hadn’t reached the angesl.  
He hadn’t recovered all his memories.  
Lance had remembered his family, friends, the first years of college and then he had understood that paradise meant say goodbye and had backtracked.  
Lance didn’t remember falling in love with Keith. He didn’t remember half of his life.  
   
«Can you stop staring at me? You look like a creep!»  
   
Keith returned to the present, blinking. He pulled back, clenching his hands into fists and watching Lance backed against the wall.  
   
«There was a fire and we died» he explained quickly.  
   
«And… They also talked with you? The angel you just mentioned…»  
   
«Yeah…»  
   
Lance sighed, running a hand over his face. When he lowered it, their eyes met again.  
   
«Well, it looks like we'll be here for a while… Let's take a look around.»  
 

**~ ~ ~**

   
As the weeks passed, Lance recovered part of his memories.  
His attitude toward Keith improved when he remembered, helped by the raven's explanations, that they had become friends and apologized to him for the way he had treated him so far. Keith continued to talk to him about their lives, helping him to make his memories as clear as possible.  
Yet for how long it passed and despite their relationship growing strong day by day, Lance didn’t seem able to remember the feeling of love that had bound them.  
It was as if the last year of his life had been completely locked up in a corner of his mind that was impossible to access.  
He could have told him, of course.  
_Ehy, Lance, we love each other, we've been together for years, I was sure you were the man I would marry one day and now it kills me that you do not even remember our first kiss._  
But was it worthwhile to throw all that information on the shoulders of someone who would not be able to understand them? He could have been scared or angry. He could have ruined the perfect balance that had been created between them.  
So Keith forced himself to swallow his frustration, every time Lance touched him or stroked his hair, murmuring vaguely how familiar the feeling was, even without being able to explain its origin.  
He stayed quiet.  
He waited.  
And year after year, he stayed beside him.  
   
 

*** * * * ***

   
Through the open door, a cold current entered the building, raising dust, moving the webs attached to the walls.  
The two ghost boys were still on the ground, sitting between each other's legs. Keith continued to stroke his hair, pulling his fingers up from the back of his head, while Lance was hiding against the hollow of his neck.  
He was trembling and sobbing.  
Keith took a long time to calm him enough to understand what he was stuttering.  
   
«What are you saying?»  
   
«They couldn’t be them! Nadia and Sylvio are- »  
   
«They grew up, Lance. We've been here for a long, long time. The world goes on and- »  
   
«No!»  
   
His cry was so loud and sudden that Keith winced. Lance freed himself from his grasp and stood up, looking at him with shining eyes and trembling lips.  
   
«My nephews were children! And watch them now! They are old, maybe as much as we are! We were. They have changed, grown up… And I won’t be able to do it, never again! »  
   
He paused, perhaps to give Keith the opportunity to say something, but the he remained silent. What could he have said, after all? Lance was right and he himself had said it a little earlier. The world had gone forward even without them.  
   
«Nadia said her father prohibited her to come here. Why doesn’t Louis want my nephews to visit me? Why does he want them to forget me?!»  
   
«No. No Lance, that’s not why-»  
   
«And even now that they really came, I almost killed them! They won’t come back. They will never come back, Keith! They will forget me, I’ll become an old memory to which no one will think any more and I’ll be alone.»  
   
«This will never happen» Keith answered firmly, but Lance shook his head, ignoring him.  
   
«I'll be alone forever, I'll go crazy.»  
   
«Lance you'll never be alone…»  
   
«Forgot by everyone and-»  
   
«Lance!» Tired of that situation, Keith grabbed a piece of his jeans and pulled him, forcing the ghost boy to kneel on the floor again. «You! You will not stay alone, ever, because I am here. With you. I will always be- »  
   
«Don’t lie to me!» was the violent reaction. «Do you think I don’t know about the visit the angel makes to you every year? Do you think I don’t know that they keep asking you to go to heaven, to leave earth, to leave _me_?»  
   
That was exactly what Keith had believed, up to a few seconds before, but he didn’t let the surprise last for a long time on his face. «If you know this, then you also know what my answer is every time.»  
   
«And I know it won’t last forever. You’ll chance your mind and-»  
   
«No, I won’t. Because…what keeps me here is important.»  
   
«It will not be forever!»  
   
«Lance!»  
   
«One day what keeps you will not be enough and then-»  
   
«This will never happen!» he shouted, now desperate.  
   
«How do you know?!»  
   
«Because I love you more than heaven!»  
   
«You- What?!»  
   
By now the damage had been done.  
Keith decided he would finish what he had started at any cost.  
   
«You gave up that day because you weren’t ready to say goodbye to your family. Well, I wasn’t ready to say it to mine. And I would stay another ten, a hundred years, if necessary, if that was what you needed, because for me there is no heaven, without you.»  
   
Although it was impossible-and he knew it well-, Lance felt himself blush. Keith's fingers left the ruined fabric and the ghost boy got down on his knees. Silently, the two kept looking at each other. Instinct told him not to interrupt eye contact, that something was happening, something was changing. He held out a hand, his palm facing up, inviting Lance to tighten it.  
   
«You are my heaven.»  
   
Lance hesitated before taking it, looking at it uncertainly as if he was afraid of seeing him disappear in front of his eyes at any moment.  
His fingertips touched him gently before their hands tightly gripped each other's and then Keith felt it. A strange new feeling. Thoughts, emotions, memories and sensations were sucked by him to Lance through that touch. He saw his expression change from confusion to fear and finally to surprise.  
He saw his irises, until then white as those of the blind, gradually darken, until becoming an intense ice gray.  
   
The tears he felt in the corners of his eyes were nothing but an illusion and he ignored them, until he felt a slip down his cheek. How could it be possible? How could he be crying? Ghosts don’t cry.  
   
«Kei…»  
   
Lance was crying too, now, his face was full of tears. Before he could realize it, Keith found himself on the ground, his arms were enveloping the warm body of the boy who had thrown himself on him. He decided to postpone questions and explanations to another moment, because nothing, _nothing_ , was more important than the way Lance was hugging him at that moment, repeating his name.  
   
«Kei… Please… Please, forgive me…» he sobbed. «Forgive me for everything I’ve done to you, over the past ten years. Forgive me for forgetting you, for forgetting _us_.»  
   
«You… Do you remember?»  
   
«Yes. Yes, I remember everything now. I remember the explosion, I remember seeing you save my body. I remember having loved you more than my own life. I remember loving you now» he separated from him, wiping his face with the back of his hand, before stroking Keith's cheek, which was also wet with tears. «Forgive me for leaving you alone…»  
   
«You've never done it…»  
   
Keith replied with a smile, making him sit on his lap.  
   
Lance chuckled, clutching his knees against his boyfriend's hips.  
   
«I missed you…»  
   
«You have no idea…»  
   
They exchanged these words in a whisper, as if they were part of a spell, looking into each other's eyes. Lance played with the longer locks of Keith's hair, just as he used to do when they were alive ten years ago, as if not a single day had passed; Keith stroked the base of his back, creating little circles with his fingers in that area of skin where Lance loved be touched.  
Slowly, one leaned toward the other in search of the last contact necessary to make their peace perfect.  
A warm light hit them, appearing a few meters away from them.  
They both looked up, looking upward at the celestial figure of the ebony-skinned angel who crossed the light. Instinctively, they tightened their grip.  
_I just found you. I won’t lose you again._  
   
The angel took a few steps, then joined their hands.  
   
«Keith» they sang, turning their blue eyes to the first boy. A moment, then their gaze moved to the second. «Lance. I’m here to lead you two to heaven.»  
   
Keith couldn’t help smiling. With a question in his eyes, he turned to Lance, who was already looking at him and the smile he saw on his lips was the only answer he needed.  
   
«We will come» he said to the angel.  
   
The celestial creature spread their wings and disappeared. The steps of a staircase, soft like clouds, were formed from the fallen feathers. Together they stood up, holding hands immediately afterwards. Keith was the first to move, dragging him along.  
He climbed the first two steps, but arrived at the third, Lance pulled him by the hand, forcing him to stop.  
   
«Wait» he said.  
   
Keith frowned, turning around. «Lance… What-»  
   
«No, I didn’t re-think about it, don’t worry…» he said, blushing slightly. «It’s just… I don’t know how heaven will be, how we will be once we get up there. So…»  His hands went up the body of his boyfriend, caressing his chest and shoulders, to stop in his hair. Keith tightened immediately his own hands around Lance’s hips, pulling him closer. «I won’t leave this life without first kissing you one last time.»  
   
The smirk that appeared on Keith's lips made his heart beats faster. Their eyes closed just before their lips finally touched. Soft and thin, just as he remembered it, that was the mouth of the boy Lance had fallen in love with. The boy that had given up eternal bliss, to watch over him, day after day. In the kiss, Lance made sure to impress all the gratitude, happiness and love he felt, genuine and profound.  
A feeling ancient like creation, which had been able to unite them beyond the classic boundaries of life and death, which would have kept them together.  
   
A love strong more than heaven.  
 

   
   
   
   
 


End file.
